ABOUT Balance & Motion Massage TheRAPY

Paula Burchat, BA, RMT, CSMTA(SF)

Paula Burchat became a Massage Therapist in 2005 after studying for 2 years at KineConcept Institute in Ottawa.  She joined the Canadian Sport Massage Therapists’ Association and after 5 years of working with sports teams and at sports events she passed her examinations and became a certified member of the CSMTA (Sport Fellow).

Paula has studied Visceral Manipulation, Manual Articular, Neuromeningeal and Vascular techniques with the Barral Institute and has been a teaching assistant for the VM program since 2018.

As a member of Athletics Canada’s Integrated Support Team (IST) from 2009 to 2019, Paula was selected for 16 national teams and travelled around the world as a team therapist for Canada’s Cross Country Running Team and Track and Field Teams.   She has also worked with the Canadian Rugby Team and Boxing Ontario.  Paula was a member of core medical for Team Canada at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia in 2018 and the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru in 2019.

Paula is an NCCP Level II trained distance running coach.  She coached runners for races from 5K to ultramarathon from 2004-2018.  She has also coached 10-12 years olds for cross-country races and all aged runners for road and trail races.

From 2022 to 2024, Paula moved to Sweden with her family.  While there she continued her studies with the Barral Institute in the UK.  Some of the courses she took focused on physical trauma – hits, falls, collisions – and its impact on a person’s body.  Other courses looked at the general day to day impacts of the nervous and vascular systems on the fascia, muscles and joints.

She treats clients aged 10-90 years who are active at all levels. Before becoming Laurel’ mom, Paula was a competitive ultra marathoner winning races ranging from 50 miles to 100 miles. She is proud to have competed for Canada at the World 100km Ultramarathon Championships in 2007 and 2008. Paula is a past race committee, board and executive member of the Ottawa Race Weekend and she held several positions on the board and executive of the Canadian Sport Massage Therapists’ Association.